It’s an unfortunate fact of life in rural Adams County that many of us don’t vote, particularly in “off-year” elections when there’s no presidential choice on the ballot. New residents rarely vote in local elections. Nor do absentee property owners. People who own second homes in Adams County typically register their vehicles elsewhere.
Why does this matter? It has to do with our local roads, culverts and bridges. Rural counties and townships in Ohio are at a big disadvantage to their urban and suburban counterparts, because they have many more miles of roads per taxpayer. Adams County’s highway maintenance budget has steadily declined over recent years, while costs have increased. Workforce reductions and cost-cutting make it increasingly difficult to keep Adams County’s roads and bridges safe and passable.
Townships are squeezed even more. Very little of local property tax revenue goes toward road maintenance, the biggest line item in most township budgets. Unless voters support road maintenance levies, townships have very little to work with. Township trustees are the unsung heroes of rural life; dedicated individuals who stretch every dollar as best they can to keep our rural roads open.
Ohio’s county and township roads are funded by a complicated formula that short-changes rural areas. Four cents of Ohio’s 38 cents per gallon gas tax goes into a fund that is divided equally between Ohio’s 88 counties. Gas tax revenue has been shrinking as vehicles get more efficient. Vehicle registration fees help support roads in most counties, but since Adams County has less vehicles per mile of highway, this source accounts for even less of our highway budget.
New residents are delighted to find that property taxes in Adams County are wonderfully low compared to almost anywhere. Most people assume that property taxes cover road maintenance, but actually they don’t. Only by registering their vehicles in Adams County, and supporting special tax levies, do local property owners pay even a fraction of the actual cost of keeping the roads and bridges open to their country property. Absentee owners and weekend residents with second homes here rarely register their vehicles in Adams County, so they don’t contribute.
New residents sometimes expect their townships to pave subdivision roads. They often fail to consider road and bridge capacities when buying property, and look for the same level of services they enjoyed in the city and suburbs. Adams County has roughly the same road mileage as Hamilton County, near Cincinnati, but only a fraction of the tax base and vehicle registrations. Union Township (East Gate) has three times the highway budget of our entire county, and less miles of roads to maintain.
Adams County residents face a difficult choice. If we want safe bridges and paved roads comparable to affluent suburbs, we have to actively support dedicated local taxes and user fees. Otherwise we must be willing to settle for less-than-perfect roads, bridges and culverts. A good start would be to register our vehicles in Adams County if we own property here. Every little bit helps.
More importantly, we need to turn out and vote for road maintenance levies in the townships where we live. Having lived in Bratton Township since 1997, I have been impressed with how our trustees stretch their modest budget to keep our roads passable. In the last election, Bratton Township voters failed to renew a one-mill levy, reducing the Township’s budget by $22,000 at a time when inflation has made gravel, fuel and equipment more expensive than ever. Just 14 more “yes” votes would have renewed the levy. We can’t let this happen again.
Like most taxpayers I resist paying more taxes, particularly as I watch our federal government squander trillions of dollars. Still, it seems to me that maintaining our township roads, bridges and culverts should be a priority. Local governments are the closest to the people, the most responsive, the most accountable, and the most cost-effective. Our Township Trustees work very hard, for modest compensation. They deserve our support.
We all want decent roads to our homes, farms, and businesses. We can help by voting to renew the road improvement levies in our own townships.
An Adams County resident since 1997, Steve Boehme is a local Adams County businessman and political commentator, who published the Adams County CROSSROADS magazine from 2005 until 2019.
